Sister, Sister
by Ensign A. Icestorm
Summary: It's another day in the DQ, when someone unexpected turns up. This one I wrote during two eveningsnights, and is the fastest I've ever written a fic, without feeling stressed. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope that it reflects in the story. But, bew


**Sister, Sister**

Kathryn was just about to sip her now-quite-cold-but-better-than-nothing coffee when the sudden shaking of the ship made her spill its content out over her table. She rose, but before she could move, or even put her hand on the com-badge and call the bridge something strange happened to the ship. It was as if though a wave suddenly went through the ship, it walked from her door, closer to her and when she was in the middle of it Kathryn felt the same tingling feeling as she usually got from beaming somewhere. Two seconds later it was over, and she was just about to press her little star when Chakotay's voice echoed in her Ready Room.  
"Chakotay to Janeway."  
"Janeway here."  
"I think you should come to the bridge." Why did he sound so hesitating, so shocked? Kathryn wondered as she stepped out on the Bridge. There, she got her answer.  
"Where on Earth am I?" The young girl looked around, furiously. Dressed in a short skirt, sandals and a blue shirt she looked extremely out of place on the Starfleet-bridge. She put her hands on her hips and looked around at the staff, her eyes probing Chakotay.  
"Would you please be so kind to tell me where I am!" Kathryn just stared at the girl. She didn't think the girl had yet noticed her, and Kathryn was too shocked to even open her mouth. But she must've heard her sharp intake of breath, because suddenly she looked around.

And it was her. It was really, really her. Blond hair, blue eyes just like hers, jaw up ready for a fight just like Daddy used to look like, but her figure was their mother's. Kathryn felt how all her colours drained from her face.  
"Ph--" was all she managed. "Ph--Phoebe?" The girl, still furious, stepped closer to her.  
"Yeah, that's me! But where is this? And who are you?" Kathryn moved towards her seat. When she was standing in front of it she could answer.  
"I am Kathryn Janeway." The girl stared at her for a moment, and then seemed to regain her angry mood, because she shouted in to the air:  
"Katie! If this is yet another of your jokes, I'm telling you; get me out of here or I'll destroy your signed Picard- photograph!" The entire bridge was silence, but Chakotay thought this was the time to say something.  
"No, this is not a joke. Somehow you've been transported to this starship, in the future--"  
"Don't tell her more." Kathryn's voice came from her seat.  
"Don't tell me? Katie this is so typical you!" She looked at the Captain, "Because it is you Katie, right?"  
"Yes Phoebe, it's me." Chakotay looked down at his Captain. She was still in shock and frankly, so was he; and he could tell she was not in a position to take charge of this situation. Therefore, he did.  
"Phoebe," he looked at her, "I think you and the Captain should go to the Ready Room and... well, we'll have to start finding a way to get you back." But he couldn't tell if she'd listened. She was staring at her older sister, finally silent.  
"Katie... uhm... this is really weird but... you don't have to look that shocked... I mean... hey, it could turn out quite fun and you know I could always visit my future me." Janeway, the older version, inhaled deeply, trying to get a grip on herself.  
"No Phoebe, you can't."  
"Because of the Time Directive?"  
"No," Kathryn shook her head," not... only because of the Time Directive, but because... we're pretty far away from home." She rose, seeming as though she'd finally gotten over her first shock, and took her sister's hand. "Come on Phoebe; let's go to my ready room." Then she turned to Chakotay. "Commander, you have the Bridge." She left, but Chakotay was quite sure he'd heard Phoebe say: "Wow, can you order them to do whatever you want?" He hoped Kathryn answered no.

When they entered her room, Kathryn couldn't help herself. In one movement she turned around and hugged Phoebe, held her close to her. After a while she let go, but kept her hands around the girls face.  
"Phoebe," She said. "How I've missed you."  
"Glad to see you back to normal, Kath. Or... uhm... back might not have been the right word." She smiled at her sister. "Anyway, glad you're not so pale anymore." Then she added, teasingly, "Pale skin has never suited you." Kathryn gave her sister a Death Glare. "Jeez, you looked just like Daddy there for a second!" Kathryn decided to smile as an answer, even though her sister's mentioning of her father had startled her. It now began to dawn upon her how grave this situation was.  
"Phoebe," she began, hoping that her tone of voice would tell Phoebe that she was serious now. "We need to try and find out when and where you're from, and, just as my commander informed you, start thinking about how to get you back." But Phoebe, as always, seemed to have decided not to take anything serious. She walked up to the higher-part of the ready room.  
"Yeah, that Commander of yours... Who is he? Name? Age? Are you interested in him?"  
"Phoebe!"  
"Sorry sis, but don't tell me you don't think he's good-looking, 'cause then... there's something wrong with you!"  
"You've told me that there's 'something wrong with me' since I was like 13."  
"Yeah but it was! You were always studying, never doing anything fun."  
"Maybe I thought it was fun!" Phoebe shook her head.  
"As I said: There's something wrong with you."

Half an hour later. After talking to each other and giggling over some memories, they had decided to call for a staff meeting. Kathryn had never seen her staff collected in such a short time. Now, she and Phoebe were standing in front of them, informing them about what they knew thus far. Phoebe was just telling them where she were and what she was doing when she'd been transported away.  
"So, I was in the corridor just between my room and the bathroom, I was about to change dress when something happened. It felt as if though I was beamed away, it was the same feeling."  
"I felt that too!" Harry Kim said. "When the wave, or what ever it was hit us, I felt that exact feeling!" Janeway looked at him, while Phoebe sat down.  
"I too felt that, and I would dare guess you all did." The rest of the staff, except for Tuvok, murmured and nodded agreeing.  
"Kath, do you know how weird this is?" Kathryn raised a questioning eyebrow. "Not only do I see you as a grown-up, but you're also like... a Captain! How did you do that?"  
"I studied." Kathryn stated. Phoebe rolled her eyes.  
"Yeah, 'curse you did." Janeway turned back to her staff.  
"I guess this is all very weird to you, it certainly is to me," she smiled in the corner of her mouth, "but before we start thinking about getting her home please, Phoebe, continue."  
"Thanks Katie. Anyway, guess you want to know which date it was? Right. It was two days after Kath's twentieth birthday, meaning the 22 of May 2356, and I was just about to see Michael Abbot, you remember him Kate? The guy who stalked me all through your birthday dinner? Some Admiral's son." Kathryn nodded. "So, I was just getting last minute-fixed, it must've been around... fifteen past seven, he were to pick me up around half past. So I was panicking and of course, thought that sending me here was yet another sign of Kath's twisted sense of humour." She shrugged. "I thought she'd send me to some holodeck." Then she nervously looked around. "I hope it doesn't turn out my first assumption was actually right..." Kathryn looked at her.  
"I can assure you: you were not. And I never had that twisted humour."  
"Maybe not, but it was twisted."  
"So," Chakotay spoke up, trying to get the attention back to the problem, even though he had to admit to himself; seeing Kathryn quarrel with her sister was quite entertaining. "Any ideas on how to understand what brought Phoebe here?" Harry spoke up:  
"Just before we saw it, and felt it, the sensors picked up some unusual readings but... uhm, I never managed to inform you about it before we were already in it." He looked a little unease about not have been able to inform them, so Chakotay nodded, trying to make it look like if he understood the situation the Ensign had been in. "There was a high notice of meta-radiation which should indicate such things as subspace conduits, making time travelling possible. But we already know that that happened so..." he sighed. "That's all I got." They all felt rather low-spirited, none of them really knowing what to do. Then suddenly, B'Elanna spoke up.  
"Listen, we've been here before. We've tampered with the time-line before, sending people back and forth, we ourselves have travelled through time... we should be able to solve this!"  
"Question is; should we just try to send Phoebe back, or should we try to prevent it from happening in the beginning? Do we want her to remember this trip, or not?" Janeway asked her staff.  
"Hey! I want to remember this!" Phoebe said. "Why can't I walk around at home, knowing that one day you'll be Captain of a starship?"  
"Because," Kathryn looked her sister in the eyes, blue eyes meeting blue eyes. "there is more to this than just me becoming a Captain. You might, one day, in your future, realise why I am far from home and might want to try and stop me. If that happens..."she sighed" Let's just say that many people's lives would be very different." Phoebe looked away.  
"Well then... I'll guess you'll have to find a way to make sure it never happened it he first place."

B'Elanna tapped her com-badge.  
"Torres to Kim."  
"Kim here."  
"Hey Harry, could you send me the readings from the anomaly? Thought I'd look them over."  
"Sure. Kim out." Torres turned to her station. It was late and she knew Harry had been looking through the scanning already, but she thought a fresh set of eyes might discover something new. And she couldn't sleep anyway so, better let Harry take it easy and be able to go off his shift in time.

"So, anyway, you remember when you were going to meet Michael Finnegan? And I told you he'd cancelled it?" Phoebe looked at Kathryn, who simply said:  
"Mm-hmm..?"  
"Well, he hadn't."  
"He hadn't?"  
"Naah... I just didn't think he was good enough for you." She bit her lover lip and tried to look as regretful as possible. Kathryn was actually thinking about yelling at her, but chose to laugh instead. She and Phoebe were in her quarters and had just finished their meals. It was still very confusing, sitting here with a 16-year-old version of her sister, who was talking about a life twenty years away, where the biggest problem was which hair-cut to wear on your first date with someone, not which kind of greeting phrases to use when making first contact.  
"...so yesterday, mother was trying to help me with my homework but she just doesn't understand my subjects as well as you and dad does so eventually I had to..." I was so wonderful to just sit here and listen to her sister's rambling and Kathryn felt comfortably relaxed. Suddenly, the door chimed and startled, she jumped out of her chair.  
"Come in," she said. The doors opened, and Chakotay walked in, a pile of padds in his left hand. Phoebe, who too stood up, tried to hide a smile. Janeway decided to ignore her.  
"Oh, Captain, I'm sorry," Chakotay said, realizing first now that of course she must be having dinner with her sister, "I wasn't thinking. I'll leave those here and... well, leave."  
"Chakotay, please you don't have to feel like an intruder."  
"No, not at all," Phoebe said, "as a matter of fact," she looked at her sister with a challenging expression, "we were just about to take some dessert and tea... or coffee if you prefer that. You'd be welcome to join us." She smiled her I'm-innocent-and-absolutely-up-to-nothing smile. Kathryn wanted to throw her out through the nearest airlock. She knew perfectly well what she was up to. But Kathryn was not going to let her see any other emotions than her professional ones. Not at all.  
"Yes, Chakotay, we would love if you could join us. We'll just clean the table." Chakotay sat down while she and Phoebe took their plates to the replicator to dematerialize them.  
"What do think you're doing?" She hissed through clenched teethes to her sister.  
"Just familiarizing with the crew." Phoebe answered innocently. "So, his name's Chakotay? Cute." Kathryn gave her a Death Glare then said to Chakotay:  
"Would you like some dessert as well? We're having chocolate mousse."  
"No, tea's fine for me." They ordered it and sat down by the table.

"So, Chakotay," Phoebe placed herself on the side of the table, leaving Kathryn and Chaklotay facing each other, and put her right foot on the chair her arms around it while eating hermousse, "a tea-guy, huh? How do you cope with Kathryn's massive intakes of coffee? Or has she cooled down?" Chakotay smiled.  
"No, she hasn't cooled down. As for her intake of coffee well..." he put down his cup, "we have restrictions on how much we can replicate so in order to get her coffee, she have to go to the Mess Hall and the coffee there is sort of infamous..."  
"Oh? How come?" But none of them had the time to answer, because suddenly, lieutenant Torres voice echoed through the com-channel.  
"Torres to Janeway."  
"Janeway here."  
"I think I might've found something interesting. I suggest you come to engineering."  
"On my way. Janeway out." She turned to Phoebe. "Come on." Phoebe put her cup down. "Right after you, Captain," she said casually. Chakotay was right behind them and the three of them headed for the turbo-lift.

"Captain! Over here!" B'Elanna cried from the other end of engineering as they entered. They made their way over the room, Phoebe looking around, her mouth slightly open.  
"So, what have you got?" The Captain asked.  
"As I was looking through Harry's scans, I noticed something interesting. I probably hadn't noticed it if I hadn't been as frustrated as I was, doing everything I could to interpret even the slightest detail." She was tapping in some commands on one of the panels. A picture of an ellips emerged, one tiny section of it marked. B'Elanna pointed at the marking. "This," she said, "is what I noticed." The computer zoomed in to the marked section. "The readings showed that whatever we went through it was not something straight, it had an angle and therefore suggested it was round, or ellips-shaped. I did some calculations and I think this is what it looks like." The computer zoomed out again. Janeway looked at her chief engineer.  
"So that means..." Janeway began.  
"That we should intercept with the other side of the ellips eventually, yes." The Captain nodded agreeing.  
"I want you, Harry Kim and Tom Paris on this. Do whatever you can to make sure that you're right, see when we're to intercept and exactly how to send Phoebe back."  
"Aye, Captain." Torres answered before tapping her com-badge and call for her aides. Kathryn and Phoebe turned around and together with Chakotay they walked out of engineering. First when they were in the turbolift did any of them speak up.  
"So, Kath, do you have any idea of when we'll be intercepting with the...ellipse?" Kathryn looked at her. Phoebe was standing on Kathryn's left side, between her and Chakotay, and she was looking up towards her older sister.  
"No Phoebe, I don't. But I doubt we'll have to wait long."

And she was right. Not more than had they entered the bridge before Harry spoke up.  
"Captain." The little group walked over to Harry's station. She nodded, urging him to continue. "We have determinate that B'Elanna was right and have calculated a position for a meeting with the anomaly."  
"Good work." Then she turned to her pilot. "Lay in a course for those coordinates, warp five."  
"Aye, Captain," was the reply.  
"How long before we'll be there?" she asked Harry.  
"47 minutes. With a few minutes margin." 47 minutes. Only 47 minutes left with her younger sister. Minutes so precious to her, minutes of memories, of being brought back to a place she'd left four years ago, and not knowing when she would return. And now she had to send Phoebe back, hoping that she wouldn't remember anything from this encounter. She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't notice Harry had continued to speak.  
"Sorry? I..."  
"I was just saying that we think that if we just positioned Phoebe here, on the bridge, on the same place as she appeared, she should be picked up by the analogy. That place happened to be from where the wave that affected the ship started from, so if we just enter the ellipse with the same angle as before, it shouldn't be any problems."  
"Do it." She turned around and took her sister's hand. "Commander, you'll have the Bridge. Page us when it's five minutes before interception."  
"Yes, Captain."

They were both silent as they entered her ready room. Kathryn walked up to her windows and looked at the stars streaking by. She saw her sister's reflection in the mirror as she came up behind her. Phoebe rested her head towards her sister's shoulder, as Kathryn pulled her closer to her. Together they watched the stars. After a long moment of silence, Phoebe spoke up, her voice very quiet.  
"Kath, that engineer of yours..."  
"B'Elanna Torres."  
"Yeah, Torres, she said you'd time-travelled before. Have you?" Kathryn smiled.  
"Yes, we have. It seems as if though we always end up in time travelling how much we even try to avoid it."  
"Have you never thought about that maybe, there's been one time when you've managed to reset the time-line? Maybe you've spent time somewhere, and because you were successful in reversing the time, will never remember it?" Kathryn felt her smile fade away.  
"No... Actually I haven't thought about that."  
"Ok," Phoebe said simply. To her, nothing seemed difficult. Kathryn wished she could feel like that sometime. "Kath..?"  
"Mmm..."  
"What if our family's doomed to time-travelling?" The older Janeway quirked a questioning eyebrow. "I mean; you've time-travelled, I've time-travelled. Maybe it's in our genes?" Kathryn chuckled.  
"I hope not."  
"Me too." they stood like that, quietly talking about everything and nothing, when suddenly, Chakotay called them.  
"Captain, five minutes to interception."  
"I'm on my way. Janeway out." She closed the link and she and Phoebe made their way to the bridge.

There, Torres was standing with a tricorder in her hand, trying to determinate something. She waved her hand towards Phoebe, not looking up from her equipment.  
"Phoebe, come here." Phoebe walked up to her. "I think you should stay...here!" She placed the younger Janeway one metre in front of the two command chairs, her back towards the view-screen. Torres walked over to her station, ready to give orders to engineering if something would go wrong.  
"Well Kath," Phoebe looked at her red-haired sister, "I guess I'll be going home then."  
"I guess you are." Kathryn was fighting hard against the tears. Having to let go of her sister, even if it was a younger version of her, was harder than she'd imagined. Phoebe was standing there, her blond hair in a pony-tail, a short skirt and a blue shirt Kathryn suddenly realized was hers. Phoebe saw her look.  
"Yeah, I borrowed it. You weren't home so..." Kathryn smiled, her throat all thick.  
"It's... its ok."  
"The ellipse is emerging." Harry shouted. This time their sensors, specially prorammed to discover the ellips, made it possible for them to see it on the view-screen.  
"Ten seconds to intercept... nine...eight...seven..."  
"Bye Phoebe."  
"six...five..."  
"Bye Kathryn."  
"three..two...one..." And suddenly the wave was there, and as Kathryn felt the tingling sensation once more, she saw how her sister's body disappeared and left nothing but air behind her.

Phoebe woke up. She looked at the time-indicator. Ten past twelve. She got out of her bed, out from her and her husbands room and through their living room before opening the door to her terrace. She stepped out and let the summer night's breeze play with her hair. She felt disorientated. She had been so sure... so sure that she had somehow meet Kathryn again, in this now... but it was probably just another dream. Kathryn had been gone for four years, and little hope was left that she was still alive... and yet...  
"Katie, where are you?" Phoebe asked the dark night sky, its stars and moon shining down on her.


End file.
